[This translation, which has been prepared by Ian
Johnston of Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, BC, Canada, (now Vancouver
Island University) is in the public domain, and may be used by anyone, in whole
or in part, without permission and without charge, provided the source is
acknowledged, released September 1999]

Considerations of the Natural
History of Animals, Their Characteristics, Their Interrelationships, Their
Organic Structure, Their Distribution, Their Classification and Their Species

Chapter Eight

Concerning the natural order of animals and the structure we must give to
their general distribution so that it conforms to the very order of nature.

I
have already remarked (Chapter V) that the essential aim of a distribution of animals
must not limit itself, on our part, to the possession of a list of classes,
genera, and species. This distribution must at the same time display, in its
structure, the means most favorable to the study of nature, something which is
most relevant to make us understand her progress, her means, and her laws.

However,
I do not hesitate to point out that our general distributions of animals up to
the present day have been given a structure which reverses the very order
nature followed in giving rise successively to her living productions. Thus, in
moving, according to custom, from the most complex towards the most simple, we
make knowledge of the progress in the composition of organic structure more
difficult to grasp, and we put ourselves in the position of perceiving less
easily both the causes of this progress and the interruptions here and there in
it.

When
we realize that something is useful, even that it is indispensable for the goal
we propose and that there is nothing inconvenient about it, we must hurry to
make use of it, even though it is contrary to custom.

Such
is the case concerning the structure which we must give to the general
disposition of animals.

Moreover,
we will see that it is not at all an indifferent matter to begin this general
distribution of animals at either one of its extremities and that what should
come at the start of the order cannot be simply a matter of our choice.

The
custom which was introduced and which people have followed up to the present
day of putting at the head of the animal kingdom the most perfect animals and
to finish this kingdom by the least perfect and the simplest in organic
structure owes its origin, in part, to the tendency which makes us always give
precedence to the objects which we find striking, which please us, or which
interest us the most, and, in part, to the fact that we have preferred to move
from the best known towards the least known.

At
the time when people began to occupy themselves with the study of natural
history, these considerations were, no doubt, very
persuasive. But they ought to yield now to scientific needs and particularly to
the need to facilitate our progress in the understanding of nature.

With
respect to animals which nature has succeeded in producing, so numerous and so
varied, if we cannot boast of knowing exactly the true order which nature
followed in bringing them successively into existence, what I am going to
reveal is probably very close to that order. Reason and all the knowledge we
have acquired encourage this probability.

In
fact, if it is true that all living bodies are productions of nature, we cannot
refuse to believe that she could produce them only successively, not all at
once at a specific moment. Now, if she created them one after the other, there
is reason to believe that she began exclusively with the simplest and did not
produce the most complex organic structures (in both the animal and plant
kingdoms) until the end,

Botanists
first gave zoologists the example of the true arrangement we should give to a
general distribution in order to represent the very order of nature. For they
formed the first class of plants with the acotyledonous or agamous plants, that
is, with the structurally simplest plants, the most imperfect in every respect,
in a word, with those which had no cotyledons, no determinable sex, no vessels
in their tissues, plants which are, in fact, composed only of cellular tissue
more or less modified according to different extensions.

What
the botanists have done with respect to plants, we should finally do with the
animal kingdom, not only because nature herself points in that direction and
reason demands it, but also because the natural order of classes, according to
the growing complexity in organic structure, is much easier to determine among
the animals than it is with respect to plants.

While
this order will better set down the order of nature, it will at the same time
make the study of objects much easier, will improve our understanding of the
organic structure of animals, the progress in its complexity from class to
class, and will demonstrate even better the affinities existing between the
different degrees in the make up of animal organization and the external
difference which we most frequently use to characterize the classes, orders,
families, genera, and species.

I
add to these two considerations (whose basis one cannot seriously call into
question) the fact that if nature, incapable of making organic structures which
survive for ever, had not had the means of giving these bodies the capacity of
reproducing themselves with other individuals which resembled them, replaced
them, and perpetuate the race by the same means, she would have been forced to
create directly all the races or rather she would have been able to create only
one race in each organic order, one for the simplest and most imperfect animals
and one for the simplest and most imperfect plants.

In
addition, if nature had not been capable of the active processes of
organization with the ability to make that very organic structure more and more
complex, by increasing the mobile energy of fluid movement and thus organic
movement, and if she had not preserved through reproduction all the progress in
the composition of organic structures and all the acquired improvements, she
should assuredly never have produced this multitude of infinitely varied
animals and plants, so different from each other in the condition of their
organic structures and capacities.

Finally,
she would not have been able to create right at the first the most eminent animal
faculties, for they do not arise except with the help of very complex organic
systems. Nature had to prepare gradually the means of bringing into existence
such organic systems.

Thus,
to establish, with respect to living bodies, the state of things which we
observe, the only thing nature had to produce directly (that is, without the
combination of any organic action) was the simplest organic bodies, whether
animals or plants. And she still reproduces these in the same way, every day,
in favorable places and seasons. Now, by giving to these bodies which she
herself created the capacity to feed themselves, to grow, to multiply, and to
preserve each time the improvements they acquired in their organic structure
and, finally, by passing on these same capacities to all the individuals
produced by organic reproduction, over time, given the enormous diversity of
always changing circumstances, the living bodies of all the classes and every
order were, through these means, produced one after the other.

In
considering the natural order of animals, the very marked gradation which
exists in the growing complexity of their organic structure and the number as
well as the improvement of their faculties is far from being a new truth, for
even the Greeks were able to perceive it (1). But they were not able to lay
bare the principles and proofs, because people then lacked the knowledge
necessary to establish them.

Now,
in order to facilitate the knowledge of the principles which have guided me in
the exposition which I am about to make concerning this order of animals, and
to better render perceptible this gradation which we observe in the complexity
of their organic structure, from the most imperfect among them, who are at the
head of the series, right up to the most perfect which conclude the series, I
have divided into six very distinct stages all the styles of organic structure
which we have recognized in the entire extent of the animal ladder.

Of
these six stages, the four first ones include the animals without vertebrae,
and hence the first ten classes of the animal kingdom, according to the new
order which we are going to follow; the two last stages include all the
vertebrate animals, and thus the four (or five) final classes of animals.

With
the assistance of this method, it will be easy to study and to follow the march
of nature in the production of the animals she has brought into existence, to
distinguish, throughout the whole extent of the animal ladder, the progress
attained in the complexity of organic structure, and to verify throughout the
precision of the distribution or the appropriateness of the assigned ranks, by
examining the known characteristics and facts of organic structure.

This
is the way in which for several years in my lessons at the Museum I set out the
invertebrates, always proceeding from the most simple towards the most complex.

In
order to make the arrangement and the totality of the general series of animals
more distinct, let us first present a table of the fourteen classes dividing
the animal kingdom, limiting ourselves to a very simple exposition of their
characteristics and the stages of organic structure which they include.

Table of the Distribution and Classification of Animals,

Following the order
which conforms most closely to the order of nature

INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS

Classes

I. THE INFUSORIANSAmorphous
animals reproducing by fission or budding; gelatinous bodies, transparent,
homogeneous, contractile and microscopic; no rayed tentacles or rotary limbs;
no special organ, not even for digestion.

II POLYPS
Budding, gelatinous regenerating bodies, without any internal organ other
than an alimentary canal with only one opening.
Terminal mouth, surrounded by radiating tentacles or
furnished with ciliated and radiating organs. The majority form compound
animals.

1st Stage

No nerves, no
vessels, no special internal organs other than for digestion

---------------------------------------------------

III RADIATESFree
suboviparous, with a regenerating body, lacking a head, eyes, articulated
limbs, and having in its parts a radiating arrangement, a mouth underneath.

IV WORMSSuboviparous,
with a soft regenerating body, not undergoing any metamorphosis, and never
having eyes, nor articulated limbs nor a radiating
arrangement in its interior parts.

2nd Stage

No knotty
(ganglionic) longitudinal chord; no vessels for circulation; few interior
organs other than those for digestion.

---------------------------------------------------

V INSECTSOviparous,
undergoing metamorphoses and having, in the perfect state, eyes in the head,
six articulated limbs, and tracheae which extend throughout; a single
fertilization during a lifetime.

VI ARACHNIDSOviparous,
with always articulated limbs and eyes in the head, not undergoing any
metamorphosis; limited tracheae for respiration; rudimentary circulation;
several fertilizations during a lifetime.

IX CIRRIPEDSOviparous,
having an articulated mantle and limbs whose skin is horny, no eyes;
respiration by gills, a knotty (ganglionic) longitudinal chord.

X MOLLUSKSOviparous,
soft body, no articulation in its limbs. with a
variable mantle; respiration by gills diversified in their form and their
situation; no spinal chord, no knotty (ganglionic) longitudinal chord, but
nerves ending in a brain.

4th Stage

Nerves ending
either in a brain or in a longitudinal ganglionic chord; respiration by
gills; arteries and veins for circulation.

XI FISHOviparous
and without teats; complete and constant respiration by gills; outline of two
or four limbs; fins for movement; no hair or feathers on the skin.

XII REPTILESOviparous
and without teats; incomplete respiration, most often by lungs which exist
all the time or in later age; four limbs, or two, or none; no hair or
feathers on the skin.

5th Stage

Nerves ending at a
brain which does not fill the skull cavity; heart with one ventricle; cold
blood.

---------------------------------------------------

XIII BIRDSOviparous
and without teats; four articulated limbs, of which two are shaped into wings;
respiration entirely by adhering pierced lungs; feathers on the skin.

XIV MAMMALSViviparous
and with teats; four articulated limbs or only two; respiration entirely by
lungs not pierced through to the exterior; hair on some parts of the body.

6th Stage

Nerves ending in a
brain which fills the cranial cavity; heart with two ventricles; warm blood.

Such
is the table of the fourteen classes established among the known animals, and arranged
following the order which most closely approximates the order of nature. The
arrangement of these classes is such that that we will always be forced to
conform to it, even if we refuse to adopt the lines of separation which form
them, because this arrangement is based on the analysis of the organic
structure of the living bodies with which it deals. This consideration, of the
first importance, establishes the affinities which exist among the objects
making up each division and the rank of each one of these groups in the entire
series.

People
will never find solid reasons for changing this distribution in its entirety,
for reasons which I am going to reveal. But we will be able to make changes in
the details, and above all in the divisions subordinate
to the classes, because the affinities between objects comprising the
sub-divisions are more difficult to determine and assume a more arbitrary
character.

Now,
in order to make better understood how much this arrangement and distribution
of animals conform to the very order of nature, I am going to reveal the
general series of known animals, divided into its principal divisions,
proceeding from the simplest towards the most complex, in accordance with the
reasons indicated above.

My
purpose, in this exposition, will be to put the reader in a position to
recognize the rank, in the general series, occupied by the animals which, in
the course of this work, I have often had occasion to refer to and to spare the
reader the trouble of having to go to other works of zoology for that
information.

However,
I will give here only a simple list of genera and only of the principal
divisions; but this list will be sufficient to demonstrate the extent of the general
series, its arrangement conforming the most with the order of nature, and the
indispensable placement of classes, orders, and thus, perhaps, of families and
genera. We understand well that it is in the good works of zoology which we
possess that we must study the details of all the objects mentioned in this
list, because I have not taken that into consideration in this work.

General Distribution of AnimalsForming a series conforming to the very
order of Nature

Invertebrate Animals

They
do not have any vertebral column and consequently have no skeleton; those which
have points of support for the movement of parts have them under their
teguments. They lack a spinal chord and present a great diversity in the
complexity of their organic structure.

First Stage of Organic Structure

No
nerves, no longitudinal ganglionic chord, no vessels for circulation, no
respiratory organs; no other special interior organ except for digestion.

[The Infusorians and
Polyps]

THE INFUSORIANS(First
Class of the animal kingdom)

Fissiparous animals, amorphous, with
gelatinous bodies, transparent, homogeneous, contractile and microscopic; no
radiating tentacles; no rotary appendages; no special organ in the interior,
not even for digestion.

Observations

Of
all the known animals, the infusorians are the most imperfect, the simplest in
organic structure, and those which possess the fewest capacities. It is certain
they have no ability to feel.

Infinitely
small, gelatinous, transparent, contractile, almost homogeneous, and incapable
of having any special organ because of the excessively weak consistency of
their parts, the infusorians are really only the rudiments of animal life.

These
frail animals are the only ones which do not carry out digestion in order to
nourish themselves and which, in fact, feed only by absorption through the
pores of their skin and by an interior saturation.

In
this matter they resemble the plants, which live only by absorption and carry
out no digestion and whose organic movements operate only through external
stimuli. But the infusorians are irritable and contractile, and they go through
sudden movements which they can repeat several times in a row, something which
characterizes their nature as animals and fundamentally distinguishes them from
plants.

Table of Infusorians

First Order: Naked Infusorians

They lack external
appendages

Monads

--------

Volvox

Bursaria

Proteus

Colpoda

Vobrio

Second Order: Infusorians with Appendages

They have projecting
parts, like hairs, types of horns or a tail

Cercaria
Trichocerca
Trichoda

Remarks. The monad, and
especially the one which is called Monas termo, is the most imperfect and
simplest of known animals, because its body, which is extremely small, displays
only a gelatinous and transparent point, but it is contractile. This animal
therefore must be considered the one at which the series of animals, organized
according to nature, begins.

POLYPS(Second
Class of the Animal Kingdom)

Gemmiparous
animals, with gelatinous regenerating bodies, without any interior organ except an alimentary canal with a single opening.
Terminal mouth surrounded by radiating tentacles or furnished with ciliated or
rotatory organs. The majority adhere to each other, communicate together
by their alimentary canal, and thus form composite animals.

Observations

We
saw in the infusorians infinitely small, frail animalcules without consistency,
without a shape unique to their class, without any organs at all,
and consequently without a mouth and a distinct alimentary canal.

In
the polyps, the simplicity and imperfection of the organic structure, although
still very noticeable, are less great than in the infusorians. Organic
structure has clearly made some progress, for already nature has given the
animals of this class a consistently regular form; already they are furnished
with a special organ for digestion, and consequently with a mouth, the entry to
their alimentary sack.

If
we picture for ourselves a small elongated body, gelatinous, very irritable,
having at its upper extremity a mouth furnished either with rotatory organs or
radiating tentacles which serves as the entry point to an alimentary canal
which has no other opening, we will get an image of the polyp.

If
we add to this idea the notion of the adherence of several of these small
bodies, living together and participating in a common life, we will understand
the most general and the most remarkable fact concerning these animals.

Since
the polyps have neither nerves for feeling nor special organs for respiration
nor vessels for the circulation of their fluids, they are the more imperfect in
their organic structure than the animals which are going to follow.

Table of Polyps

First Order: Rotifer Polyps

They have around
their mouths ciliated and rotatory organs

Urceolaria
Brachionus (?)
Vorticella

Second Order: Polyps in Polyparies

They have around
their mouths radiating tentacles and are fixed in a polypary which does not
float on the oceans.

(1) Membranous or
Horny polypary, without a distinct outer crust

Crostatella
Plumatella
Tubularia
Sertularia

Cellairia
Flustra
Cellelpora
Botryllus

(2)
Polypary with a horny axis, covered with a crust

Acetabula
Corallina
--------
Sponge

Alcyon
Antipata
Gorgona

(3) Polypary with an axis and partly or entirely
stony, and covered over with a bark like crust

A polypary free, elongated, floating in
water, and having a horny or bony axis covered with a skin common to all the
polyps; radiating tentacles around the mouth.

Funiculina
Veretillum
Pennatula

Enerinus
Umbellularia

Fourth Order: Naked Polyps

They have radiating often multiple tentacles
at their mouths; they do not form polyparies.

Pedicellaria
Coryne
Hydra

Zoantha
Actinia

Second Stage of Organic Structure

No
longitudinal ganglionic chord, no vessels for circulation; a few special
internal organs (either tubes or pores taking in water or species of ovaries)
other than those for digestion.

[The Radiates and
Worms]

RADIATES

(Third Class of the
Animal Kingdom)

Subgemmiparous
animals, free or wandering; with regenerating bodies, a radiating arrangement
of parts, both internal and external, and compound organ of digestion; lower
mouth, simple or multiple. No head, no eyes, no articulated limbs; a few
internal organs other than those for digestion.

Observations

Here
is the third line of classic separation which it is useful to draw in the
natural distribution of animals.

Here
we find entirely new forms which all nonetheless have affinities with a common
similar type, as follows: the radiating arrangement of the parts, both interior
and exterior.

These
are no long animals with an elongated body, an upper terminal mouth, usually established
in a polypary with a great number of them living together, each participating
in a communal life. These are animals with a more complex organic structure
than in the polyps, simple, always free, with a design which is unique to them,
and generally orienting themselves in an inverted position.

Almost
all the radiata have tubes drawing in water which appear to be aquatic
trachaea. And in a great number we find special bodies which look like ovaries.

In
a Memorandum which I have just heard read in the assembly of professors at the
Museum, I learn than a wise observer, Doctor Spix, a Bavarian physician, has
discovered in the star fishes and sea anemones the apparatus of a nervous
system.

Doctor
Spix claims to have observed that in the red star-fish, under a membrane made
up of tendons (like a tent) there is suspended on the stomach a reticular
structure made up of whitish nodules and threads and, in addition, at the
origin of each ray, two nodules or ganglia which communicate with each other by
a thread and from which other threads leave and go to parts close by; among
others there are two very long threads which run through the full length of the
ray and supply the tentacles.

According
to the observations of this learned man, we see in each ray two nodules, a
small extension of the stomach (coecum), two hepatic lobes, two ovaries and
trachaeal canals.

In
the sea-anemones, Dr. Spix observed at the base of these animals, below the
stomach, a few pairs of nodules, arranged around a centre, which communicate
with each other by cylindrical threads and which send out other threads to the
upper parts. Moreover, he saw there four ovaries surrounding the stomach, from
the base of which canals leave which, after joining up, open into a lower point
of the alimentary canal.

It
is astonishing that such a complex organic apparatus has escaped the attention
of all those who have examined the organic structure of these animals.

If
Doctor Spix was not imagining things in in what he believed he saw and if he
was not wrong in attributing to these organisms a nature and functions
different from what is appropriate to them (something which has happened to so
many botanists who believed they saw male and female organs in almost all the
cryptogram plants), then the consequences are as follows:

(1)
It is not in the insects that we must establish the commencement of a nervous
system;

(2)
This system must be considered as rudimentary in the insects, radiates, and
even in the sea-anemone, the last genre of polyps;

(3)
This is not a reason why all polyps should possess the rudiments of this
system, in the same way that it does not follow that all reptiles are equipped
with bills just because some have them.

(4)
Finally, the nervous system is no less a special organ, not shared by all living
bodies. For not only is it irrelevant in plants but it it is not even present
in all the animals. As I have made known, it is impossible that the infusorians
are furnished with a nervous system and assuredly polyps in general are not
capable of having one. Thus, we would look for it in vain in the hydras, which
nonetheless belong to the last order of polyps, the one closest to the radiates, since it includes the sea anemones.

Thus,
whatever the basis for the facts cited above, the points which I present in
this work on the successive formation of the different special organs remain
valid no matter at what point in the animal scale each of these organs
originates. And it is always the case that the abilities which the organs
provide for the animal do not begin to operate until the organ which provides
them come into existence.

Opaque skin,
crustaceous or coriaceous, furnished with retractable tubercules or articulates
spines on tubercules, and pierced with holes in a series.

(1) Stellerides. Skin not irritable, but
mobile; no anus

Ophiura
Asteria

(2) Echinoids. Skin not irritable, not
mobile; an anus

Clypeaster
Cassidites
Spatangus
Ananchytes

Galerites
Nucleoites
Sea urchin

(3) Fistulides. Elongated body, an irritable
and mobile skin; an anus

Holothuria
Sipunculus

Remarks. The sipunculus are
animals very close to worms. However their known affinities with the holothuria
have led them to be placed among the radiates, with
which they no longer share characteristics. Consequently, they must come at the
end.

In
general, in a really natural distribution, the first and the last genera of
classes are those in which the classical characteristics are less pronounced.
Because they come at the limits of the class and the lines of separation are
artificial, these genera must display to a lesser extent than the others the
characteristics of their class.

WORMS

(Fourth Class in the
Animal Kingdom)

Suboviparous
animals, with soft elongated bodies, without a head, eyes, limbs, or bunches of
setae; without circulation and with a complete intestinal canal (one with two
openings). Mouth made up of one or several suckers.

Observations

The
general form of worms is very different from that of the
radiates. Their mouths, always a sucker, has no
similarity to those of the polyps, which display only an aperture accompanied
by radiating tentacles or rotatory organs.

Worms
have, in general, an elongated body, very slightly contractile, although very
soft, and their intestinal canal is not limited to a single opening.

In
the fistulid radiates, nature began to abandon the radiating form of the parts
and to give animal bodies an elongated shape, the only one which might lead to
the goal which nature set for herself.

Once
nature created the worms, she is going to tend from that point on to establish
the pattern of the paired symmetry of parts, which she could not attain except
by an articulated design. But in the class of worms, which is ambiguous to some
extent, she has only sketched out a few traits.

Oviparous
animals, undergoing metamorphoses, able to have wings, and possessing, in the
perfect state, six articulated limbs, two antennae, two faceted eyes, and a
horny skin. Respiration by aerated trachaea which
extend to all the parts; no system of circulation; two distinct sexes; one
single reproductive act in a lifetime.

Observations

Having
reached the insects, we find among the extremely numerous animals which this
class includes a very different order of things from the classes which we have
have encountered in the animals of the four preceding classes. Moreover,
in the place of modulations in the progressive complexity of the organic
structure in animals, once we arrive at the insects, in this matter we have
made quite a considerable leap.

Here,
for the first time, the animals examined from the outside show us a true head
which is always distinct, very remarkable eyes (although still very imperfect),
articulated limbs arranged in two rows, and the symmetrical form of paired and
opposing parts which nature will use from this point on right up to and
including the most perfect animals.

When
we move to the interior of insects, we see in addition a complete nervous
system, consisting of nerves which end a a longitudinal
ganglionic chord. Although complete, this nervous system is still very
imperfect. The area where the sensations meet appears very
fractured, and the senses themselves are few and very obscure. Finally,
we see in the interior of the insect a real muscular system and distinct sexes,
which, however, can provide only a single fertilization (as with the plants).

True,
we do not yet find a circulatory system, and it is necessary to go higher in
the animal chain to find this improvement in organic structure.

The
property of all insects is having wings in their perfect state, so that those
which lack them have been deprived only by an abortion which has become
habitual and constant.

In
the table which I am going to present, the genera have been reduced to a number
considerably lower that that of the genera which people have made from the
animals in this class. Interest in studying the subject and the
simplicity and the clarity of the method seemed to me to demand this reduction,
which is not going to harm at all an understanding of the objects. To use
all the particular details which one could seize upon in the characteristics of
animals and plants in order to multiply genera to infinity is, as I have
already said, to clutter up and obscure science instead of serving it. It
makes the study of science so complicated and difficult, that it would become
impossible to practice it, except for those who wished to dedicate their entire
lives to learning the immense nomenclature and the minute characteristics used
to make distinctions among animals.

Table of Insects

A.SUCKING INSECTS

Their mouths display
a sucker furnished or lacking a sheath

First Order: Apterous Insects

A proboscis with two valves and articulated
in three places, containing a sucking organ with two bristles The wings
have usually aborted in both sexes; legless larvae; immobile nymph in a cocoon.

Flea

Second Order: Dipterous Insects

A non-articulated
proboscis, straight or with an elbow, sometimes retractile. Two bare wings
membranous and veined; two balancers; vermiform larvae, most often without
feet

A two-part sucker,
lacking a sheath, like a tubular proboscis, and folded up as a spiral when
inactive.
Four membranous wings, covered with colour scales like flour. The larvae
have eight to sixteen limbs, inactive chrysalis.

(1) With subulate or setaceous antennae

Petrophorus
Orneodes
Cerastoma
Tinea
Noctua
Phalaena

Alucita
Adella
Pyralis
------
Hepialus
Bombyx

(2) Antennae swollen somewhere along their
length

Zygoena
Butterfly

Sphinx
Sesia

(B) BITING INSECTS

Their mouths display
mandibles, most often accompanied by jaws

Fifth Order: Hymenopterous Insects

Mandibles and a
three-sectioned sucker more or less extended, the base of which is enclosed in
a short sheath. Four bare wings (membranous, veined, unequal); in the
female the anus is equipped with a sting or apparatus for boring; immobile
nymph.

(1) Females equipped with a sting in the anus

Bee
Monomelites
Nomads
Eucera
Andrena
-----
Wasp
Polistes

Ant
Mutilla
Scolia
Tiphia
Bembex
Crabro
Sphex

(2) Females equipped with a boring apparatus
in the anus

Chrysis
Oxyurus
-----
Leucopsis
Chalcis
Cinips
Diplolepis
Ichneumon

-----
Evania
Foene
------
Urocere
Oryssus
Tenthredo
Clavellair

Sixth Order: Neuopterous Insects

Mandibles and jaws;
four naked wings (membranous and reticulated); lengthened abdomen, lacking a
sting or boring apparatus; six-footed larva; variation in the metamorphoses.

(1) Inactive nymphs

Perla
Nemoura
Frigania

Hemerobius
Ascalaphus
Myrmeleon

(2) Active nymphs

Nemopterea
Panorpa
Psocus
Termes
-----
Corydalis
Chauliodes

Raphidia
Ephemera
-----
Agrion
Aeshna
Libellula

Seventh Order: Orthopterous Insects

Mandibles, jaws, and galeae covering the jaws;
two straight wings, longitudinally folded and cover by two almost membranous
elytra; larvae as in the perfect insect, but having neither wings nor elytra;
active nymph.

Grasshopper
Acheta
Locust
Truxalis
----
Mantis

Phasma
Spectrum
------
Cricket
Cockroach
Earwig

Eighth Order: Coleopterous Insects

Mandibles and jaws;
two membranous wings, transversely folded in repose and under two hard or
coriaceous shorter elytra; six-footed larvae; scaly head and eyeless; inactive
nymph.

Oviparous
animals, always having articulated limbs and eyes in the head; they do not
undergo a metamorphosis and never possess wings or elytra; stigmata and limited
trachaea for respiration; a rudimentary circulation system; several
fertilizations in a lifetime.

Observations

The
arachnids, which in the order which we have established come after the insects,
show clear progress in the perfecting of organic structure.

In
fact, sexual reproduction manifests itself with the arachnids, for the first
time, with all its capabilities, since these animals
couple and reproduce several times in their lives, while in the insects, the
sexual organs, like those of plants, can carry out only a single fertilization.
Moreover, the arachnids are the first animals in which the circulation system
begins to become sketched out. For according to the observations of Cuvier, we
find in them a heart extending from which, on the sides, are two or three pairs
of vessels.

The
arachnids live in the air, like those insects which have reached the perfect
condition But they do not undergo any metamorphosis,
never have wings and elytra, something which is not the result of some
abortion, and they remain, in general, hidden or living by themselves, feeding
themselves on prey or by sucking blood.

In
the arachnids, the method of respiration is still the same as in the insects,
but the method is on the point of changing. For trachaea of arachnids are very
limited (impoverished, as it were) and do not extend to all the parts of the
body. These trachaea have been reduced to a small number of vesicles, something
else Cuvier has taught us (Anatom., vol, IV, p. 419); and after the arachnids,
this method of respiration does not occur again in any of the classes of
animals which follow.

This
class of animals needs to treated with care . Many of
them are venemous, especially those which live in hot climates.

Table of Arachnids

First Order: Arachnids Pedipalyps

No antenna, only pedipalps; the head fused
with the thorax; eight limbs

Nerves terminating in a longitudinal
ganglionic chord or in a brain without a spinal chord; respiration with gills;
arteries and veins for circulation.

[The Crustaceans, the
Annelids, the Cirripeds and the Mollusks]

CRUSTACEANS

(Seventh Class of the
Animal Kingdom)

Oviparous
animals, having articulated bodies and limbs, a crustaceous skin, several pairs
of jaws, eyes and antennae in the head; respiration by gills; a heart and
vessels for circulation.

Observations

Some
significant changes in the organic structure of the animals of this class
indicate that in forming the crustaceans nature has succeeded in making
considerable progress in the organic structure of animals.

First,
the method of respiration is here entirely different from that used in the
arachnids and insects. And this method, made up of organs called gills, is
going to continue right up to the fish. Trachaea do not appear again, and the
gills themselves will disappear when nature is able to create a cellular lung.

Then,
the circulation (which in the arachnids consists of only a simple outline) is
fully established in the crustaceans, where we see a heart and arteries for
sending out blood to the different parts of the body and veins which bring this
fluid back to the principal organ responsible for its motion.

We
find again in the crustaceans the style of articulations which nature has
universally used in the insects and the arachnids, to facilitate muscular
movement with the help of indurations of the skin, but from this point on
nature will abandon this method of setting up an organic structure which no
longer will require it.

The
majority of crustaceans live in water, either fresh or brackish or salt. Some
nonetheless remain on the earth and breathe air with their gills. All of them
feed only on animal material.

Oviparous
animals with an elongated body, which is soft and
ringed laterally, rarely having eyes and a distinct head, and lacking
articulated limbs. Arteries and veins for circulation;
respiration by gills; a longitudinal ganglionic chord.

Observations

We
see in the annelids that nature is forced to abandon the method of articulation
which she has constantly used with the insects, arachnids, and crustaceans.
Their bodies--elongated, soft, and for the most part composed of simple
rings--gives these animals the appearance of being just as imperfect as the
worms, with whom people have confused them. But since they have arteries and
veins and breathe by gills, these animals, very distinct from the worms, must,
along with the cirripeds, make the transition from the crustaceans to the
mollusks.

They
lack articulated limbs (2), and most of
them have, on the side, bristles or bundles which
take the place of limbs. Almost all of them are suckers and feed themselves
only on fluid material.

Table of Annelids

First Order:
Cryptobranch Annelids

Planaria
Leech
Lernia
Clevella
-----

Furia
(?)
Nais
Lumbricus
Thalassema

Second Order:
Gymnobranch Annelids

Arenicola
Amphinoma
Aphrodite
Nereis
-----
Terebella
Amphitrite

Sabellaria
-----
Serpula
Spirorbis
Siliquaria
Dentaliium

Cirripeds

(Ninth Class of the
Animal Kingdom)

Oviparous
and testaceous animals without a head and eyes, having a mantle which covers
the inside of the shell, articulated arms with a horny skin, and two pairs of jaws
in the mouth; respiration by gills; a longitudinal ganglionic chord; vessels
for circulation.

Observations

Although
we know only a small numbers of general which are linked to this class, the
characteristics of the animals which make up these genera are so remarkable
that it is necessary that we distinguish them as making up a specific class.

The
cirripeds have a shell, a mantle, and have no head or eyes. Thus they cannot be
crustaceans. Their articulated arms mean that we cannot place them among the annelids.
And their longitudinal ganglionic chord prevents us from combining them with
the mollusks.

Table of Cirripieds

Tubicinella
Coronula

Balanus
Anatifa

Remarks: We see that the cirripeds still incline
towards the annelids by their longitudinal ganglionic chord. But in these
animals, nature is preparing itself to create the mollusks, because they
already have, as do the latter, a mantle which covers the interior of their
shell.

Mollusks

(Class Ten of the
Animal Kingdom)

Oviparous
animals, with a soft body (not articulated in its parts) and a variable mantle;
respiration by very diversified gills; no spinal
chord, no longitudinal ganglionic chord; nerves ending at an imperfect brain.

Most
of them are enveloped in a shell; others have a shell more or less entirely
enclosed in their interior; and still others have no shell at all.

Observations

The
mollusks are the best organized of the animals without vertebrae, that is to
say, those whose organic structure is is the most complex and which come
closest to that of fish.

They
make up a numerous class which ends the invertebrates and which is really
distinguished from the other classes, since the animals which make it up have a
nervous system, like many others, but are the only ones which have neither a
longitudinal ganglionic chord nor a spinal chord.

Nature,
at the point of starting to form the system of organic structure of the
vertebrate animals, appears here to be preparing herself
for this change. Thus the mollusks, which have no link any more to the style of
articulation and of the attachment which a horny skin gives for the muscles of
animals who have this feature, are very slow in the
movements and appear, in this respect, more imperfectly structured than even
the insects.

Finally,
since the mollusks make the transition from invertebrates to vertebrate animals, their nervous system is intermediate, and displays
neither the longitudinal ganglionic chord of the invertebrate animals with
nerves nor the spinal chord of the vertebrate animals. This is eminently
characteristic of them and clearly distinguishes them from the other
invertebrates.

Table of Mollusks

Order One: Acephalic Mollusks

No head, no eyes, no
organs for chewing; they reproduce without copulation; most of them have a
shell with two valves which articulate with a hinge.

Brachiopods

Lingula
Terebratules
Orbicules

Ostracians

Radiolites
Calceola
Crania
Anomia
Placuna
Vulsella

Oyster
Gryphaea
Plicatula
Spondylus
Pecten

Byssifera

Houlette
Lima
Pinna
Perna
Malleus

Mytilus
Modiola (?)
Crenatula
Avicula
-----

Chamaceans

Etheria
Chama
Diceras

Corbula
Pandora
-----

Naiads

Mulette
Anodonta

Arcaceans

Nucula
Petunculus
Arca

Cucullaea
Trigonia
-----

Cardiads

Tridaena
Hippopus
Cardita

Isocardia
Cardium

Conchs

Venericardia
Venus
Cytherea
Donax
Tellina

Lucina
Cyclas
Galathea
Capsa

Mactraceans

Erycina
Ungulina
Crassatella

Lutraria
Mactra
-----

Myarians

Mya
Panorps
Anatina

Solenaceans

Glycimeria
Solen
Sanguinolaria

Petricola
Rupellaria
Saxicava

Pholadarians

Pholas
Teredo
Fistulana

Aspergillum
-----

Ascidians

Ascidia
Salpa
Mammaria

Order Two: Cephalic Mollusks

A distinct head, eyes and two or four tentacles in most,
jaws or a proboscis by the mouth; reproduction by coupling; the shell in those
which have one never consists of two articulated valves with a hinge.

(1)Pteropods

Two opposed fins for swimming

Hylaea
Clio
Pneumoderma

(2) Gasteropods

(A) straight body,
unified to the foot in all or almost all its length.

Tritonians

Glaucus
Aeolis
Scyllaea

Tritonia
Tethys
Doris

Phyllidians

Pleurobranchus
Phyllidia
Chiton

Patella
Fissurella
Emarginula

Laplysians

Laplysia
Dolabella

Bullaea
Sigaretus

Limacians

Onchidium
Limax
Parmacella

Vitrina
Testacella
-----

(B) Spiral body; no
siphon

Colymaceans

Helix
(snail)
Helicina
Bulimus

Amphibulimus
Agathina
Pupa

Orbaceans

Cyclostoma
Vivipara

Planorbis
Ampullaria

Auriculaceans

Auricula
Melanopsis

Melania
Limnaea

Neritaceans

Neritina
Navicella

Nerita
Natica

Stomataceans

Haliotis
Stomatia
Stomatella

Turbinaceans

Phasianella
Turbo
Monodonta
Dauphinula

Scalaria
turritellaVermicularia(?)

Heteroclites

Volvaria
Bulla
Janthina

Calyptraceans

Crepidula
Calyptraea

Solarium
Trochus

(c) Spiral body, a
siphon

Canalifera

Cerithiium
Pleurotoma
Turbinella
Fasciolaria

Pyrula
Fusus
Murex

Wing Shells

Rostellaria
Peteroceras

Strombus

Purpuraceans

Cassis
Harpa
Dolium
Terebra
Eburna

Buccinum
Concholepas
Monoceros
Purpura
Nassa

Columellarians

Cancellaria
Marginella
Colombella

Mitra
Voluta

Convolutes

Ancilla
Oliva
Terebellum

Ovula
Cypraea
Conus

(3) Cephalopods

(A) with multilocular test

Lenticulaceans

Miliola
Gyrongonita
Rotalia
Renulites

Discorbina
Lenticulina
Nummulites

Lituolaceans

Lituolites
Spirolinites
Spirula

Orthocerae
Hippurites
Belemnites

Nautilaceans

Baculites
Terrilites
Ammonoceras

Ammonites
Orbulites
Nautilus

(B) With unilocar
test

Argonautaceans

Argonauta
Carinaria

(C) Without test

Sepialeans

Octopus
Calamary
Cuttle-fish

VERTEBRATES

They
have a vertebral column made up of a multitude of short bones, articulated and
arranged in a linear sequence. This column serves to hold up the body,
establishes the basis of the skeleton, provides a sheath for the spinal chord,
and terminates at the anterior end with a bony container which contains the
brain.

FIFTH stage of Organic Structure

Nerves ending at a spinal column and at a
brain which does not fill the skull cavity. The heart has one
ventricle and cold blood.

[The Fish and the
Reptiles]

The Fish

(Class Eleven of the
Animal Kingdom)

Oviparous
animals, vertebrate and with cold blood; living in water, breathing by gills;
covered with a skin, either scaly or almost bare and viscous, and having for
movement only membranous fins, held up by a bony or cartilaginous framework.

Observations

The
organic structure of fish is much more perfected than that of mollusks and of
the animals of the preceding classes, since they are the first animals which
have a vertebral column, the outline of a skeleton, a spinal chord, and a skull
enclosing the brain. They are also the first in which the muscular system
derives its points of attachment from interior parts.

However,
their respiratory organs are still analogous to that in the mollusks,
cirripeds, annelids, and crustaceans. And like all the animals of the preceding
classes, they still lack a voice and have no lids on the eyes.

The
form of their body is appropriate for their need to swim, but they keep the
paired symmetrical shape of their parts (which began in the insects); finally,
with them, as well as with the animals of the three following classes, the
style of articulation is only on the inside and only occurs in the parts of
their skeleton.

Note.
For the creation of the table of vertebrates, I used the work of Dumeril,
entitled Analytical Zoology, and I permitted myself only a few changes
in the arrangements of items.

Table of Fish

Order One: Cartilaginous Fish

Soft vertebral
column, like cartilage; no true ribs in many of them.

(1) No opercule and
no membrane over the gills

Trematopneans

Respiration by round
holes

1. Cyclostomes

Gasterobranchus (hagfish, myxine)
Lamprey

2. Plagiostomes

Torpedo
Skate
Rhinobatus

Squatina
Squalus
Aodon

(2) No opercule over
the gills, but a membrane

Chismopneans

Openings of the gills
by slits on the sides of the neck; four paired fins

3. . . . . . . . . . . .

Batrachus
Lophius

Balistes
Chimaera

(3) An operculum
above the gills but no membrane

Eleutheropomes

Four paired fins;
mouth under the muzzle

4. . . . . . . . . . . .

Polyodon
Pegasus
Accipenser (Sturgeon)

(4) An operculum and
a membrane over the gills

Teleobranches

complete gills, having an
operculum and a membrane

5. Aphyostomes

Macrorhyncus
Solenostoma
Centriscus (snipe fish)

6. Pteroptera

Cyclopterus (lump sucker)
Lepadogaster

7. Osteoderms

Ostracion
Tetraodon
Ovoidea

Didon
Spheroidon
Syngnathus

Order Two: Bony Fish

Vertebral column with
inflexible bony vertebrae

(1) An operculum and
a membrane over the gills

Holobranchs

Apode Holobranchs

No paired lower fins

8. Peropterous holobranchs

CoeciliaMonoopterus
LeptocephalusGymnotus
Trichurus

Notopterus
Ophisurus
Apteronotus
Regalecus

9. Pantopterous holobranchs

Muraena
Ammodytes
Ophidium
Macrognathus
Xiphias

Anarrhichas
Comephorus
Stromataeus
Rhombus

Jugular Holobranchs

Paired lower fins
situated under the throat, anterior to the thoracic fins

Remarks. Since the
skeleton started to form itself in the fish, those called cartilaginous
are probably the least perfected fish, and consequently the most imperfect of all
must be the gasterobranch which Linnaeus, under the name myxine,
considered a worm. Thus, in the order which we are following, the genus
gasterobranch must be the first of the fish, because it is the least perfected.

REPTILES

Viviparous
animals, with vertebra and cold blood; breathing incompletely by a lung, at
least in their later life; with a smooth skin or one covered in scales or a
bony shell.

Observations

In
the reptiles some progress in the perfectioning of organic structures is very
noticeable, if we compare these animals with the fish. For among them we
find for the first time the lung, which we know is the most perfect respiratory
organ, because it is the same as what is in man. But here it is only
sketchy, and several reptiles do not even have one in the early part of their
lives. In truth, they breathe only incompletely, for only a part of the
blood is sent to the parts which go by the lung.

It
is also among them that we see for the first time in a distinct way four limbs
which are part of the design of vertebrate animals and which are appendages of
(or depend upon) the skeleton.

Table of Reptiles

First ORDER: BATRACHIAN
REPTILES

Heart with one
auricle; bare skin; two or four legs; gills in the first stage of life; no
coupling

Urodela

Siren
Proteus

Triton
Salamander

Anura

Tree-frog
Frog

Pipa
Toad

SECOND ORDER: OPHIDIAN REPTILES (SNAKES)

Heart with one
auricle; elongated body, narrow and without limbs or fins; no eyelids

Homoderms

Coecilia
Amphisboena
Acrochordus

Ophisaurus
Slow-worm
Sea snake

Heteroderms

Crotalus
Scytale
Boa
Erpeton

Erix
Viper
Coluber
Platurus

THIRD ORDER: SAURIAN REPTILES

Heart with two
auricles; scaly body furnished with four limbs; claws on the digits; teeth in
the jaw bones.

Tereticauds

Calcides
Scincus
Gecko
Anolis
Dragon

Agama
Lacerta
Iguana
Stellio
Chamaeleon

Planicauds

Uroplates
Tupinambis
Basiliseus

Lophura
Dracaena
Crocodile

FOURTH ORDER: CHELONIAN REPTILES

Heart with a double auricle; body equipped
with a carapace and four limbs; no teeth in the jaw bones

Chelonia
Chelys

Emys
Tortoise

SIXTH DEGREE OF ORGANIC STRUCTURE

Nerves ending at a spinal chord and a brain
which fills the cranial case; heart with two ventricles and warm blood.

[Birds and Mammals]

BIRDS

(Thirteenth Class of
the Animal Kingdom)

Oviparous
animals, vertebrates and with warm blood; breathing completely by adhering and
pierced lungs; four articulated limbs, two of which are shaped as wings;
feathers on the skin.

Observations

The
birds certainly have an organic structure more perfect than the reptiles and
all the animals of the preceding classes, because they have warm blood, a heart
with two ventricles, and their brain fills the cranial case, characteristics
which they share only with the more perfect animals which make up the last
class.

However,
birds evidently form only the penultimate rung of the animal ladder, for they
are less perfect than the mammals, since they are still oviparous, lack mammary
glands, lack a diaphragm, a bladder, and so on, and since they have fewer
faculties.

In
the table which follows, one can notice that the four first orders include the
birds whose young cannot walk or feed themselves when they hatch and, by
contrast, the three last orders include the
birds whose young move and feed themselves as soon as they emerge from the
egg. Finally, the seventh order, that of the palimpeds, seems to me to
show birds who, through their affinities, come closest
to the animals of the class which follows.

Table of Birds

First order: climbers

Two digits in front
and two at the back.

Levirostrate Climbers

Parrot
Cockatoo
Macaw
Pull-bird

Touraco
Trogon
Musophaga
Toucan

Cuneirostrate Climbers

Woodpecker
Wryneck
Jacamar

Ani
Cuckoo

SECOND ORDER: RAPTORS

A single digit at the
back; anterior digits completely free; hook beak and claws

Nocturnal Raptors

Owl
Eagle-owl
Surnia

Bare-Neck Raptors

Condor
Vulture

Feather Necked Raptors

Griffon
Secretary-bird
Eagle

Buzzard
Goshawk
Falcon

THIRD ORDER: PASSERES

A single digit at the back; the two front external digits
are united; the tarsus of medium height

Crenirostrate Passeres

Tanagra
Shrike
Flycatcher

Ampelis
Thrush

Dentirostrate Passeres

Hornbill
Motmot
Phytotoma

Plenirostrate Passeres

Grackle
Bird-of-Paradise
Roller

Crow
Pie

Conirostrate Passeres

Ox-pecker
Blaucopis
Oriole
Cacicus
Starling

Crossbill
Brosbeak
Colius
Finch
Bunting

Subulirostrate Passares

Mannakin
Titmouse

Lark
Wagtail

Planirostrate Passares

Martin
Swallow
Nightjar

Tenuirostrate Passares

Kingfisher
Tody
Nuthatch
Orthorincus

Bee-eater
Humming-bird
Creeper
Hoopoe

FOURTH ORDER: COLUMBAE

Soft flexible beak,
flat at the base; nostrils covered by a soft skin; wings appropriate for
flight; brood of two eggs

Pigeon

FIFTH ORDER: GALLINACEANS

Solid beak, horny,
rounded at the base; brood of more than two eggs

Alectride Gallinaceans

Bustard
Peacock
Tetras
Pheasant

Guinea-fowl
Curassow
Penelope
Turkey

Brachypterous Gallinaceans

Dodo
Cassowary

Rhea
Ostrich

SIXTH ORDER:WADERS

Very long tarsus,
without feathers right up to the leg; external digits united at their base
(birds of the water's edge)

Pressirostrate Waders

Jacana
Rail
Oyster-catcher

Moorhen
Coot

Cultrirostrate Waders

Bittern
Heron
Stork

Crane
Mycteria
Tantalus

Teretirostrate Waders

Avocet
Curlew
Woodcock

Dunlin
Plover

Latirostrate Waders

Boatbill
Spoonobill
Pheonicopterus

SEVENTH ORDER: PALIMPEDS

Digits linked by
large membranes; tarsus not very high (aquatic animals, swimmers)

Penniped Palimpeds

Anhinga
Phaeton
Gannet

Frigate-bird
Cormorant
Pelican

Serrirostrate Palmipeds

Merganser
Duck
Flamingo

Longipen Palmipeds

Gull
Albatross
Petrel

Avocet
Tern
Scissor-bill

Brevipen Palimpeds

Grebe
Guuillemot
Auk

Penguin
King-penguin

MONOTREMES
(Geoff.)

Animals
intermediate between the birds and the mammals; these animals are quadrupeds,
without mammary glands, without teeth in the jaws, without lips, and with only
one orifice for the genital organs, feces and urine; their body is covered with
hair or bristles

Ornithorhynchus
Echidna

Note:
I have already spoken of these animals in Chapter VI, where I showed that they
are neither mammals, nor birds, nor reptiles.

MAMMALS

(Fourteenth Class of
the Animal Kingdom)

Viviparous animals with mammary glands; four articulated
limbs, or only two; respiration entirely by lungs which are not pierced on the
outside; hair on some parts of the body.

Observations

In
the order of nature, which clearly proceeds from the simplest towards the most
complex in its workings on living bodies, the mammals necessarily make up the
last class of the animal kingdom.

This
class effectively includes the most perfect animals, those which have the most
faculties, the most intelligence, and finally, the most complex organic
structure.

These
animals whose structure comes closest the that of man
display for this reasons a combination of senses and faculties more perfect
than all the others. They are the only ones which are truly viviparous
and which have mammary glands to suckle their young.

Thus,
the mammals display the most significant complexity in the organic structure of
animals, and represent the limit in the perfectioning and in the number of
faculties which nature, with the help of this organic structure, was able to
give to living bodies. Therefore, they must come at the end of the
immense series of existing animals.

Table of Mammals

FIRST ORDER: EXUNGULATE MAMMALS

Only two limbs; they
are in front, short, flattened, appropriate for swimming, and display neither
nails nor hoofs.

Cetaceans

Right-whale
Rorqual
Physale
Cachalot
Sperm-whale

Narwhal
Anarnak
Delphinopterus
Dolphin
Hyperodon

SECOND ORDER: AMPHIBIAN MAMMALS

Four limbs; two short ones in front, as fins with
unguiculate digits; the back two are directed towards the back or united with
the extremity of the body, which is tail-like (as in fish)

Seal
Walrus

Dugong
Manatee

Observation

This
order is placed here only because of the relationship of the general form of
the animals which make it up. See my observations
on p. 143.

THIRD ORDER: UNGULATE MAMMALS

Four limbs which are
suitable only for moving; their digits are enclosed entirely at the ends by a
horn which is called a hoof.

Solipeds

Horse

Ruminants or Bisulcates

Ox
Antelope
Goat
Sheep

Deer
Giraffe
Camel
Musk-deer

Pachiderms

Rhinoceros
Hyrax
Tapir

Pig
Elephant
Hippopotamus

FOURTH ORDER: UNGUICULATE MAMMALS

Four limbs; flat or
pointed nails at the end of their digits, which are not enclosed.

Tardigrades

Sloth

Edentates

Ant-eater
Pangolin

Aardvark
Armadillo

Rodents

Kangaroo
Hare
Coendu
Porcupine
Lemur
Phascolomys
Hydromys
Beaver
Cavy

Spalax
Squirrel
Dormouse
Hamster
Marmot
Vole
Musk-rat
Rat

Pedimana

Opossum
Bandicoot
Dasyurus

Wombat
Coescoes
Phalanger

Plantigrades

Mole
Shrew
Bear
Kinkajou

Badger
Coati
Hedgehog
Tenrec

Digitgrades

Otter
Mongoose
Skunk
Weasel

Cat
Civet
Hyaena
Dog

Chiroptera

Galeopithecus
Rhinolophus
Phyllostome

Noctilio
Bat
Flying-fox

Quadrumanes

Galago
Tarsius
Loris
Makia
Indris
Guenon

Baboon
Sapajou
Cebus
African-Baboon
Pongo
Orang

Remark. According to the
order which I have just presented, the family of quadrumanes is thus
made up of the most perfect known animals, above all the last genera of this
family. In effect, the genus Orang (pithecus) ends the entire
order, just as the monad began it. What a difference with respect to
organic structure and faculties between the animals of these two genera!

Naturalists
who have considered man solely with respect to his organic structure have
formed out of the six known varieties a particular genus, so that man alone
makes up a separate family, characterized in the following way:

BIMANES

Mammals with separate limbs with nails; three types of
teeth and opposable thumbs only on the hands

Man

Varieties

Caucasian
Hyperborean
Mongolian
American
Malayan
Ethiopian or Negro

The
name bimanes has been given to this family because, in effect, only
human hands display a thumb separated and opposing the digits, while in the
quadrumanes, the hands and the feet show this same characteristic, so far as
the thumb is concerned.

Some Observations
Relevant to Men

If
man were distinguished from animals only with respect to his organic structure,
it would be easy to show that the characteristics of organic structure which
one would use to form a separate family (with its varieties) are all the
products of ancient changes in his actions and habits which he acquired and
what have become special to the individuals of his species.

In
fact, if some race or other of quadrumanes, above all the most perfected among
them, were to lose (by necessity of circumstance or some other cause) the habit
of climbing up trees and grasping branches with their feet, as with their
hands, to hang on there, and if the individuals of this race, over a succession
of generations, were forced to use their feet only for movement and stopped
using their hands as feet, there is no doubt, after the observations revealed
in the preceding chapter, that these quadrumanes would finally be transformed
into bimanes and that the thumbs on their feet would cease to be separated from
the digits, since these feet serve them only for movement.

Moreover,
if the individuals I am talking about, moved by the need to grow higher so as
to see all at once far and wide, were forced to hold themselves upright and
acquired from that a constant habit from one generation to the next, there is
no doubt once again that their feet would have insensibly taken on a shape
appropriate for holding them in an upright position, that their limbs would
acquire calves, and that these animals could only move around with difficulty
on their hands and feet at the same time.

Finally,
if these same individual were to stop using their jaws as weapons for biting,
tearing, or seizing, or like pincers for cutting grass to eat, and if they were
used only for chewing, once more there is no doubt that their facial angle
would become more open, that their muzzle would shorten more and more, and
would be finally effaced and they would have vertical incisor teeth.

Suppose
now that a race of quadrumanes, like the most perfect, having acquired by
constant habits in all its individuals the form which I have just referred to
and the faculty of standing erect and walking upright and that later this race
succeeded in dominating the other races of animals. In such a case one
will see the following:

1.
This race, more perfect in its capabilities, having
because of these finally come to master the others, will spread itself out over
the surface of the earth into all places which are suitable for it.

2.
This race will have chased off the other prominent races and, in the event of a
dispute about what the good the earth offers, it would have forced them to take
refuge in places which this race does not occupy.

3.
By harming the large multiplication of the races close to it in their
affinities and having relegated them to the woods or other deserted places,
this race will have stopped the progress in the perfection of their faculties;
while that race itself, capable of extending itself everywhere, will
multiply there without obstacles from the others and live there in numerous
troops; it will have successively created new needs which will stimulate its
industry and gradually perfect its methods and capabilities.

4.
Finally, this preeminent race, having acquired an absolute supremacy over all
the others, will have succeeded at putting between itself and the most perfect
animals some difference and, in one way or another, a considerable distance.

Thus,
the race of the most perfect quadarumanes will have been able to become dominant,
to change its habits as a result of the absolute empire which it will have
taken over the others and of new needs, and from that to acquire progressively
modifications in its organic structure and numerous new capabilities, to
restrict the most perfect of the other races to the state at which they have
arrived; and to introduce very remarkable distinctions between itself and the
latter.

The
Orang of Angola (Simia troglodytes, Lin.) is the most perfect of
animals: it is much more so than the orang of the Indies (Simia satyrus,
Lin.), which has been called the orang-outang. Nevertheless, with respect
to their organic structure, they are both far inferior to man in coporeal
faculties and in intelligence (3).
These animals hold themselves upright on many occasions, but since they have
not developed this into a sustained habit, their organic structure has not been
sufficiently modified, so that standing up is a very inconvenient and
uncomfortable condition for them.

We
know (by accounts of travelers) above all in connection with the orang of the
Indies, that when a pressing danger obliges them to run away, the animal
immediately falls back onto its four limbs. According to us, that reveals
the true origin of this animal, because it is forced to abandon this strange
bearing which is foreign to it.

Without
doubt this upright bearing is foreign to the animal, since it makes less use of
it when it moves about . Hence its organic
structure is less appropriate for such a stance. But because that stance
is easier for man, is it entirely natural to
him?

For
man who, through the sustained habits of the individuals in his species over a
long sequence of generations, can hold himself upright as he moves around, this
stance is nonetheless a tiring state for him, a condition in which he is not
able to sustain himself except for a limited time and with aid of the
contractions of several of his muscles.

If
the verbebral column of the human body were to form the axis of the body and to
hold the head at equilibrium, as well as the other parts, man would be able to
be in a state of repose while upright. Now, we all know that that is not
the case, that the head does not move itself at the body's centre of gravity,
that the chest and the stomach, as well as the viscera which these cavities
enclose, weigh down almost totally on the front part of the vertebral column,
that this column itself rests upon an oblique base, and so on. Thus, as
Richerand observes, it is necessary that while man is standing, an active power
constantly keep watch to prevent the falls which the weight and the
distribution of the parts always tend to encourage in the body.

After
having developed the matters relevant to the stance of man, the same scholar
explained himself as follows: "The relative weights of the head, the
abdominal and thoracic viscera thus tend to pull forward that line, as a result
of which all the parts of the body weigh on the plane which maintains it, a
line which should be exactly perpendicular to this plane so that the stance is
perfect. The following fact lends support to this assertion. I have
observed that the children whose head is voluminous, the belly jutting forward,
and the viscera overfull with fat accustom themselves to standing upright with
difficulty. It is hardly at the end of their second year when they dare
to trust their own powers. They remain subject to frequent falls and
have a natural tendency to reassume the condition of a quadruped." Physiology,
vol. II, p. 268.

This
arrangement of parts which establishes the stance of man is an active state and
thus tiring (rather than being a relaxed state). Hence, it would reveal
in man an origin analogous to that of the other mammals, if his organic
structure alone were taken into considerations.

Now,
in order to follow, in all its points, the hypothesis presented from the start
of these observations, it is appropriate to add the following considerations.

The
individuals of the dominant race we are talking about spread out into all the
habitable places suitable for them. Having considerably multiplied their
needs as the societies which they formed became more numerous they would have
had to by the same process multiply their ideas and thus to have felt the need
to communicate with those like them. We may imagine that from this
resulted the necessity for them to increase and to vary to the same extent the
signs appropriate for the communication of these ideas. Thus, it is
evident that the individuals of this race would have had to make continual
effort to create, multiply, and vary sufficiently the signs which their ideas
and numerous needs rendered essential.

This
is not the case with other animals. For although the most perfect among
them, like the quadrumanes, live for the most part in groups, since the
remarkable supremacy of the race we are talking about, they have remained
without progressing in the perfectioning of their faculties, having been chased
away everywhere and relegated to wilderness areas, deserts usually limited in
extent, where, unhappy and restless, they are forced continuously to flee and
hide. In this situation, these animals no longer form new needs, acquire
new ideas. Their ideas remain few and do not change. And among
these ideas there are very few which they would need to communicate to other
individuals of the same species. Thus, they need only very few different
signs to make themselves understood to those like them. Hence, some movements of the body or some of its parts, a
few hissings and cries varied by simple vocal inflections are enough for them.

By
contrast, the individuals of the dominant race already mentioned, having had a
need to multiply the signs to communicate quickly their ideas (which have
become more and more numerous), and not resting content with pantomime signs or
the possible inflections of their voice, in order to represent this multitude
of signs which has become necessary would have succeeded, by different efforts,
in forming articulated sounds. At first they would have used only a small
number, combined with the inflections of their voice. Afterwards,
they would have increased them, varied them, and perfected them, according to
the growth of their needs and to the extent that they would have made more
effort to produce them. In fact, the habitual exercise of the
throat, tongue, and lips to articulate sounds would have really developed this
faculty in them.

From
that would come, for this particular race, the origin of the admirable
capability of talking. And since the distance between places where the
individuals making up this race would have widened and encouraged the
corruption of the signs agreed upon in order to convey each idea, from that
would have originated languages, which have been diversified everywhere.

Thus,
in this matter, needs alone would have achieved everything. They would
have given birth to efforts, and the organs appropriate to the articulation of
sounds would have developed by their habitual use.

Such
might be the reflections which one could make if man, considered here as the
preeminent race in question, were not distinguished from animals except by the
characteristics of his organic structure and if his origin were not different
from theirs.

Notes to Section Eight

(1)See
the voyage of the Young Anacharsis, by J. J. Barthelemy, vol. V, p. 353 and
354. [Back
to Text]

(2) In order to perfect the organs of
movement for the animals, nature had to leave off the system of articulated
limbs, which are not the result of a skeleton, in order to establish the system
of four limbs dependent on an interior skeleton which is unique to the most
perfect animals. This is what nature has carried out in the annelids and the
mollusks, where she has set about preparing the methods to begin, in the fish,
the organic structure specific to vertebrate animals. Thus, in the annelids,
she has abandoned articulated limbs, and in the mollusks has done even more:
she has ceased to use a longitudinal ganglionic chord.[Back to Text]

(3)
See in my Recherches sur les Corps vivans, p. 136, some observations on
the Orang of Angola. [Back to Text]